Tuesday, 8 May 2018

On
Friday December 15, 2017, the President Nana Akufo Addo cut sod for the
commencement of work on the Marine Drive Project in Accra, at a ceremony
attended by chiefs, political leaders and the business community.The project, which is estimated to cost about
US$1.5 billion, is a Public-Private Partnership project expected to transform
the beachfront stretch from the Osu Christianborg Castle to the Arts Centre
into a vibrant business and commercial enclave that will transform the city’s
skyline, create jobs, spur tourism growth and boost the national economy. The
project, covering an area of over 240 acres, is located within the ministerial
enclave that serves multiple functions. Given the already congested environment
among other militating factors, this report presents issues that planning
authorities might want to consider in the siting of this massive project in
order to preserve the functions of the earmarked area.

Ghana’s
tourism sector is grossly underdeveloped, although the country possesses great
potential for tourism development and the implementation of this project will
therefore give a needed boost to the sector. On completion, the Marine Drive
project will have facilities such as hotels, malls, offices, casinos, and
parking spaces. Other planned facilities include conference and exhibition
centres, a beach soccer pitch, a mini golf course, an office complex for the
Ministry of Tourism, etc. This level of investment will transform the earmarked
area into a business, commercial and tourism hub that could improve the
country’s competitiveness within the West African sub-region. The potential of
a project of such magnitude is enormous and cannot be downplayed.

Again,
Ghana’s coastline has been experiencing storm surges, which have gradually
eroded significant amounts of land, thus the project is needed to control the
effects of the sea action. Among the areas in Accra that are very vulnerable to
tidal erosion are the Accra Central, Independence Square and Osu stretch of
coastline, of which the earmarked area for the project forms a part. Given the
magnitude of the project and the vulnerability of the selected location, the
project will embank the shoreline for the successful preservation of the land.

The
foregoing points notwithstanding, there are other development planning contexts
that also need to be considered.The
ministerial enclave where the project will be situated, serves multiple
functions. Firstly, it serves as the seat of government administration, accommodating
the Osu Castle, which hosts about three ministries and other government
institutions. Other government ministries and a number of government
departments and agencies like the Volta River Authority, Electricity Company of
Ghana, Ghana Water Company Ltd, etc., are also found within the enclave. The
Parliament House, offices of the members of parliament, and the law courts
complex are also within the vicinity. Secondly, the environs of the enclave
serve as a commercial area and economic hub. The World Trade Centre is located
there, along with the presence of several banks. Lastly, with the presence of
recreational and hospitality facilities as well as national monuments including
the Supreme Court Complex, Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, Independence Square, the
Accra Sports Stadium, the Osu Cemetery, the Accra International Conference
Centre, Kempinski Hotel, the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, the Accra City Hotel,
the Octagon, the National Theatre, the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park, World
Trade Centre, etc., the ministerial zone serves as a tourism and hospitality
enclave in its own right.

In
spite of its multi-functional purpose, the general layout of the ministerial
zone presents an increasingly congested and haphazard arrangement which must be
redesigned.On a typical day, there is
heavy flow of traffic towards the city centre, of which the ministerial zone
forms a major part. While it is conventional to ensure that the central
business district has mixed uses, situating the Marine Drive Project there will
surely draw an additional amount of traffic to the city centre each day, made
up of workers and constant visitors to the city centre, in addition to the
tourists, suppliers etc. of the Marine Drive facility, which could defeat the
idea of creating a balanced redistribution of the urban population as proposed
in the National Urban Policy Framework. A traffic impact assessment must have
been carried out, although it is not clear the number of vehicles expected at
the city centre on a daily basis and how these could affect the work of the ministries.
The World Bank’s extraordinary report, “Where
Is The Wealth Of Nations? Measuring Capital for the 21st Century” states
that a large part of the world's total capital is
intangible; mainly human capital and the value of institutions are measured by the
efficiency of the judicial, legislative and administrative systems of
the State.However, these same
institutions can be rendered ineffective and inefficient because of the heavy
traffic, prolonged construction activities, pedestrian movement and excessive
commercialisation of the environs.

Another
issue to be pondered is the large number of government buildings to be
demolished —more than three dozen buildings— that previously accommodated
several government agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture and its
agencies, the agencies of the Ministry of Health, the regional offices of the
Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA), formerly Town and Country
Planning Department (TCPD), the Management Development and Productivity
Institute, the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, the Factories
Inspectorate, the Births and Deaths Registry, etc.There is the proposition of a high-rise
building to be constructed within the vicinity of the Customs head office to
accommodate these agencies, and this must be diligently done bearing in mind
the already congested area. How do we balance the movement of heavy equipment,
construction materials and workers to and from the site along the logistics
corridor now created through the Castle Drive, the Castle Roundabout and into
the built-up Osu Township?

The
project is anticipated to generate about 150,000 jobs, which is a very laudable
outcome. However, the overbearing effect that this will have on the
approximately 8,000 public sector workers in the area should not be underrated.
The size of the public sector has doubled since 1995, and this is evident not
only in the numbers of people employed in the sector, but also in the physical
structures occupied by the sector. What looked like a quite serene ministerial
zone in the nineties has now become a congested environment with several
ministerial annexes, new facilities and structures constructed, with vehicles,
hawkers, lotto vendors, chop bar operators and food vendors choking up the
place.Some ministries such as the Local
Government are now erecting multi-storey steel containers as additional office
space but this will not solve the increasing overcrowding. Generally, the size
of a public sector increases with increasing population and it is expected that
the sector could double again in size within the next 30 years, when the
population also doubles in size. The question to contemplate on is, how will
the sector function with the nation needing public sector facilities that are
more than twice the current size but having growth constrained by a huge
commercial establishment on its doorstep?

Proceeding
with the project in its current form means turning a ministerial area and
business hub into a commercial and recreational district, which could congest
the area further, slow government businesses down and delay legislative,
judicial and executive functions. It should also be anticipated that the
movement of construction machinery and materials would affect the quality of
roads leading to the site. Construction workers would outnumber public sector
workers by far, and food vendors will trail them in pursuit to the area,
turning the zone into a large pedestrian marketplace. Artists’ impressions of
the project that have emerged show several high-rise structures situated
adjacent to the Independence Square. With the Square being a national monument
and a facility for State ceremonies including hosting visiting Heads of State,
it is hoped that having high-rise buildings in close proximity to the Square
would not pose security risks.

Ghana’s
ministerial enclave was designed based on the United Kingdom model. The UK
Parliament Square, the equivalent of Ghana’s ministerial zone accommodates the
legislature, judiciary and executive buildings. The buildings overlooking the square
include two houses of parliament (the Houses of
Commons and Lords), Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Government Offices, HM
Revenue and Customs, the parliamentary estate and Westminster Abbey; almost the
same institutions that are found in Ghana’s ministerial enclave.Westminster Abbey, also known as The
Church of England, is where all coronations of English monarchs have taken
place and important national church services are held.The proposed Ghana National Cathedral is
likely to be Ghana’s own Westminster
Abbey.

Again,
in the same area in the UK, are situated the statues of 6 former prime
ministers including Winston Churchill, and important global personalities such
as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. It is a controlled area bare of major commercial
or business interests. Ghana’s enclave hosts the mausoleums of two former
Presidents, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Prof. John Evans Attah Mills, and a few more
could come up in the future. Where else could these monuments of the nation’s
statesmen best be situated, except within the precincts of the institutions
that house the legislature, judiciary and the public sector? The UK parliament
area used to be congested, and featured London’s first traffic lights but the
place was redesigned with the clearance of a substantial amount of structures
to produce the current beautiful appearance.Recent terrorists attacks within the vicinity of Westminster were
largely contained because of the well-planned nature of the area.These thoughts, therefore, call for better
planning and reorganisation of the entire ministerial enclave in order to
address all these competing demands.

The
Ghana National Spatial Development Framework (2015) and the National Urban
Policy (2012) both identify the overconcentration of growth and development in
a few locations as a major challenge, and thus define strategies to facilitate
a balanced redistribution of facilities and population. Therefore, Accra must
open up new development frontiers at other locations of the city to boost the capital’s
competitiveness. The project has opened up an urban planning opportunity for
Accra that should not be missed, however, state institutions like the LUSPA,
the National Development Planning Commission and the Government itself must
work with the developers and carefully envision the future development of the
area, taking the long-term growth and expansion into consideration.

To
avoid the conflicting situation at the ministerial enclave, an alternative is
to situate the project in another location along Accra’s 40 km coastline
stretch; for example, at Glefe, a slum settlement between the sea and the
lagoon area near Dansoman in the Accra Metropolis, and the beautiful Densu
River estuary. The sea is threatening to invade the area, and siting a project
of such calibre there will remove the slum and correct the development
challenges. The small Glefe coastal community, popular for its serene beach
line, now bears scars too appalling for human comfort, the effect of
environmental degradation precipitated by hurriedly constructed structures to
accommodate the teeming masses of new residents arriving in the city. Due to
the ravaging action of the sea, most of the owners of these structures have
abandoned them to seek prospects elsewhere. The government must step in and
save the coastline.

The
people of Glefe are calling for a sea defence project to protect the land that
is being washed away, however, sea defence projects are unnecessarily expensive
and obsolete. Coastlines that are ravaged by the sea are now put to other more
economic uses, such as ports, fishing harbours, water and boating sports,
recreational facilities etc., with heavy State and private sector investments.
The government should consider relocating the rest of the people and
constructing major highways, and electricity transmission and water supply
systems as subsidies to attract private investments into that area. Having a
project like the Marine Drive project in Glefe will create a new growth pole
and new markets, free up more land for development and protect the coastline
lands from sea erosion.

In
conclusion, Ghana needs a good public sector to promote Government business and
the physical space within the ministry enclave should be made more
efficient.It is said that if the
private sector is the engine of growth, then the public sector is the oil that
fuels the engine.It is hoped that the
planning authorities and the developers would work to address the challenges
enumerated above.